Do you need to see 'The Room' before 'The Disaster Artist'? The screenwriters weigh in.

It’s a question that has been asked repeatedly online, and one we’ve fielded from friends and family members who’ve heard the buzz on the acclaimed new comedy The Disaster Artist: Do you need to see The Room, the infamous and epically awful Tommy Wiseau film chronicled by James Franco and company, before you see The Disaster Artist?

So we put it to The Disaster Artist‘s screenwriting duo, Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber (500 Days of Summer, The Spectacular Now) at Sunday’s Golden Globe Awards (watch above).

“By design, we wrote the first draft of the script with only me having seen The Room,” said Neustadter. “Weber didn’t actually watch it while we were writing the thing. Because we wanted to make sure that it wasn’t for a very small pocket of the audience and that everyone could enjoy it. Because it’s really not about [The Room], it’s about these two guys and their friendship and their dream to make movies.”

In other words, as Neustadter put it, “Hopefully no.”

“You can watch it in either order,” said Weber, who quoted one of the Disaster Artist‘s co-stars (and connoisseur of bad cinema), Paul Scheer. “He said it best, ‘If you’ve seen The Room, The Disaster Artist is a sequel. But if you haven’t seen The Room, The Disaster Artist is a prequel.”

The Disaster Artist is now playing, while The Room will play nationally for one night only on Jan. 10.

Watch the cast of The Disaster Artist talk about the weirdness of The Room: